You could be forgiven this week for thinking that politics is a game. It is not. That is most especially the case for those in government, although they would appear to be the ones most dedicated to any task that prevents them from delivering for the benefit of the people of the UK.
Take this example from the BBC's website:
Delays in prosecuting suspected criminals have hit a record 708 days for the average time it takes to go from offence to completion of a case.
In the three months to September 2021, the average time it took to deal with a crime rose 15%, up from 620 days.
For all practical purposes, it now takes two years for someone subject to criminal prosecution to reach court. Not only does that prejudice a fair trial for the defendant, it also reduces the chance of a successful prosecution: memories of events will inevitably fade during the course of that period. There is wholly unnecessary stress in this for everyone, whilst all law enforcement agencies are undermined.
One of the most basic tasks of government is to create and uphold the law for the sake of the smooth operation of society. This has always been at the heart of Conservative thinking. What is now apparent is that the government is failing at this most basic of levels of responsibility. Nor can the delay be put down to Covid. These delays have arisen because of the lack of funding. There is no other reasonable explanation.
Johnson may, or may not, survive the next week or so. As I have already argued, the appropriate response to that is 'so what?' If nothing changes as a consequence of him leaving then this is a mere sideshow to distract from the reality that the Tories are not only not governing, but do not wish to govern. That is the real crisis that we face.
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Governing whilst not governing (or vice versa even) used to be just applied to the financial sector.
Now we are all getting a dose of it.
Why?
Because it favours money-power – that’s why.
And this helps to reinforce in the majority of the population that Government is useless, so expectations are reduced and opportunities for profit by the rich are maximised.
That’s it in a nutshell.
It’s reinforcing the idea, too, that rules don’t matter. After all, the people who are elected to rule are breaking their own rules! What matters is success by any means (like turning an advisory referendum into a mandate for catastrophic action opposed by half the population) regardless of their legitimacy. Legitimacy has no bearing on the matter, only what is designated “the will of the people”, which is supposedly a desire for untrammelled freedom of the individual to do as they please. In such a chaotic situation losers are regarded with contempt and deemed deserving of their fate, and winners take all.
From working in Africa during the 70’s and 80’s I shudder when I hear the words “The will of the people” it always denotes a countries fall into warlordism, the civil war and chaos.
The Quockerwodger will go. But, I think it won’t be until after the local elections so, that he gets tarred with that brush if they are bad results for the govt, and the successor can claim ‘new broom, new team’ and other such empty slogans.
However, the demoralising thing is that it won’t be any better once he does go – same horse, different jockey (OK, that’s a slogan as well but I like it:-) ) – and not much better if the Labour party is able to form a government at the next general election. I hope something does emerge that provides hope that things can get better but it’s hard to see it at the moment.
Craig